Evidence suggests
that the solution to one of aviation’s great mysteries – the fate of
French fliers Charles Nungesser and François Coli, who attempted
an east-west transatlantic crossing in May 1927 – might lie in the
hilly terrain near Round Lake in eastern Maine.

On the afternoon of May 9, 1927, Anson Berry, fishing in his canoe on
Round Lake in eastern Maine, heard what sounded like an engine overhead,
approaching from the northeast. He could not see the airplane, if that
was what it was, because of a heavy overcast.

The engine sounded
erratic. Moments later it stopped, and Berry heard what he described years
later as a faint, ripping crash. The afternoon was wearing on, and the
always unsteady spring weather was worsening; already rain was beginning
to fall. Perhaps because he did not trust the weather to hold, Berry did
not investigate what he heard.

If he had, one of
aviation’s most puzzling mysteries might have been solved. As it is, no
one yet knows what happened to Captains Charles Nungesser and François
Coli , who left Paris the morning of May 8, 1927, to attempt the first
east-to-west transatlantic flight in history. Apparently they disappeared
into the North Atlantic, forced down by the weight of ice on the wings
of their biplane, named the White Bird.

But 16 persons in
Newfoundland saw or heard an airplane pass overhead the morning of May
9. Given the times and locations of those sightings, quite possibly what
Berry heard was the White Bird.

Public interest in
transatlantic flight had been ignited on June 14, 1919, when Captain John
Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur brown made the first nonstop crossing from
St. John’s, Newfoundland, to Clifden, Ireland. Before Nungesser and Coli’s
attempt, seven more west-to-east crossings had been made. But now the
goal was to connect New York and Paris, a nonstop flight more than...

Caption to photograph:

For several
months before they took off from Paris May 8, 1927, Captains Charles
Nungesser and François Coli prepared meticulously for their attempt
at an east-west transatlantic flight. They personally oversaw the construction
of l’Oiseau Blanc
(the White Bird). The Levasseur PL8 biplane required a 450-horsepower
engine to get its 11,000 pounds airborne, and carried a 40 hour fuel
supply. Once in the air, the landing gear was dropped to save weight,
since most of the route was over the Atlantic and the fuselage was watertight
for a possible ocean landing.

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